Wanting to do something unique to gain attention and create a buzz with moviegoers, Paramount Pictures contacted Lamar Billboards. Being that the Transformers movies are based on highly advanced metallic creatures that “transform” from secret lives as ordinary cars and trucks into larger-than-life battling robots, the campaign wanted to reach out to car owners and draw them into the movie’s unique universe — and a digital billboard campaign was developed.

Intelliscape worked with Lamar Advertising to deploy a solution where an IP video camera and a video analytics system are integrated to identify certain makes and models of cars for the purpose of presenting responsive, targeted billboard ad messaging. The Intelliscape analytic solution uses Canon cameras and integrates Milestone VMS with proprietary analytics for car recognition that matches vehicles against a database of those with the same make and model.

With a camera mounted about 1,000 feet ahead of the digital billboards on roads where speed surpass 55 mph, the solution recognizes the target vehicle and delivers the custom billboard advertisements accordingly in approximately 1 second time, allowing the identified car make and model to be incorporated within the message: Attention Your Car is an Autobot! Recognition data for Honda Civic, Ford Focus, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, and Chevy Malibu are some of the models included in the campaign..

“Our medium is usually all mass media, but this solution enables us to have a direct conversation with people,” said Ian Dallimore of Lamar. “This is really taking digital billboards and target marketing to the next level. It’s pretty cool what we’re able to do.”

In the US, the campaign was launched in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Cincinnati and Oklahoma City and runs during June 2017. Transformers: The Last Knight, was released in theaters yesterday, June 21, 2017.

Intelliscape designed and implemented the solution across the selected billboards. According to Mike Maziarka from Intelliscape, there are many factors involved that must be taken into account for the digital billboard integration, such as vehicle speed, lighting, and camera angles. Since each location is different, multiple images of targeted vehicles are used to create a database to identify cars as they pass by.

“This is not unlike a facial recognition system, but we’re using a database of vehicle images and information to make positive identifications without using personally identifiable information such as license plates” said Maziarka. “This technology, especially when combined with license plate recognition systems, has a wide range of possible applications, including uses within the world of Smart Cities; parking garages, drive-thru services, freight yards, congested urban areas and much more.”

About Intelliscape

Intelliscape is a unique organization that specializes in the recognition of people, vehicles and things using cameras and lasers. Intelliscape uses proprieatary Video Analytics and Deep Learning software thereby making this technology very relevant across both a wide range of verticals. Intelliscape is a world leader in this area as demonstrated in this article having implemented the VEHCIO solution for Fortune 500 companies. By utilizing recognition technologies, we can offer greater value than traditional IoT devices. We can turn a mass marketing channel such as a billboard into a one to one relationship with the end customer.

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Author: John WellerJohn has spent over 35 years working in and lending to media companies including a long partnership with fellow billboard insider Dave Westburg. You can contact John at 509-496-3254 or johnhweller@comcast.net.